Pollution of waterways from marine vehicle exhaust has been an environmental problem without significant improvement. While the prior art is replete with attempted improvements in trying to clean the exhaust of marine vehicles before it enters the water, the prior art has failed to address any solution to prevent absorption of the exhaust into the water. Thus, there is a need in the art to provide a pollution control system for a marine vehicle that prevents the absorption of engine exhaust into the surrounding water. Further, there is also a need to improve the efficiency of marine vehicles by reducing the friction of water against the boat hull by breaking the surface tension between the two, which ultimately reduces pollution through more efficient vehicle operation.
The general concept of underwater exhaust for marine vehicle engines was the subject of U.S. Pat. No. 1,069,945 issued in 1913. However, this patent does not show or disclose exhaust exiting underneath the bow of a boat, being treated with a chemical to encapsulate the exhaust, nor providing the additional advantage of reducing drag on the boat hull by breaking the surface tension of the water against the hull.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,628,488 discloses an elongated flexible strip which is placed near the bow of the boat with a central tube extending under the hull. A chemical is fed into the central tube and passes out along the hull which, in a diluted form, reduces friction of the boat hull passing through water. However, this patent does not disclose the exhaust of the vessel being diverted to the bow and encapsulated by the chemical.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,524,568 discloses a system for reducing friction on a boat hull by creating a mixture of air bubbles and water adjacent to at least a portion of the hull. However, there is no discussion of encapsulating exhaust with a chemical foaming agent and discharging the mixture near the bow to reduce surface tension.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,393,802, 4,509,927 and 6,575,106 disclose discharging exhaust along the bottom of the hull. However, none of these references disclose a chemical foaming agent for encapsulating the exhaust.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,252,243 discloses an injection nozzle for injecting a fluid stream into a gas stream to “purify,” the gas stream. Specifically, this invention states that it is well suited for hot diesel exhaust gas. This patent specifically addresses the problem of NOx creation and discloses reducing NOx concentrations with NH3. However, there is no discussion of encapsulation exhaust for a marine vessel using a foaming chemical agent that is released underneath the bow of the boat to reduce surface tension.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a pollution control system for a marine vehicle that encapsulates the engine exhaust in a biodegradable foam to prevent absorption into the water.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a friction reduction system that breaks the surface tension of water against the boat hull by channeling the encapsulated engine exhaust out from underneath the bow area of the boat hull.